Prevent debarked logs cracking in the sun?

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Blue42

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I had a 2' diameter beech tree fall and spent a lot of time debarking it to preserve the wood. I left the pieces out (off the ground) that were too big to move but not worth it to me to mill with the chainsaw.

They're cracked pretty bad along the length of the logs on the top. I suspect if I'd been able to keep them out of the sun it wouldn't have happened. I sealed all ends well with anchorseal right away, so I'm not talking about the ends cracking. The cracks started on the upper side of the log, not the ends.
I just went out there and dumped some teak oil on the tops of them all. I wish I'd done that to start with. Probably too late now.
Does anyone have any experience or tips with this? Leave the bark on and they'll rot. Take the bark off and they'll crack; at least if you can't get them out of the sun.

For me, I think next time I will coat the tops of any logs I have to leave to dry in the sun with an outdoor deck/furniture oil right away. The drying can happen through the bottom.
 
It comes to mind that maybe it's just the fact that it's beech that is a lot of this issue. I've debarked some chestnut oak 2.5' diameters logs that sat in the sun for many months and there wasn't much cracking. I know beech is less stable with temp and humidity than most woods anyone builds with.
Before and after below. Debarked in Feb. Sat outside til now. Some of those cracks are deep. Maybe 2-3" into the logs.
 

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I dunno, mine didn't split; no treatment other than I put some old paint on the ends when I first got it. I got a beech log given to me if I picked it up, let it lie in my driveway for 3 years and when I freshened up the ends it looked like the first two photos.

When I milled it up it looked like the second two. The table I made out of two slabs is the last one. I guess everyone's mileage varies.

Is there a possibility the tree was at an angle and stressed?
 

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I can't get them into the shade without building a roof over them. I painted all the ends with anchorseal but the cracks didn't start on the ends. They went the whole length of the log.

That table looks good. I wonder if your log was in the shade, and was it debarked. I can't see anything not rotting with a bark coat on it for long.
 
I never debarked it, just hauled it home and left it sitting on gravel to either make something out of or cut up into firewood. After a couple of years I noticed the spalting and started to drool. It was in a mix of shade and direct sun; shade till after noon and then direct sun till say 4 pm. And that would be when the sun shines in the PNW, of course. So I did nothing special not expecting anything special, but lucked out.
 
Ah, PNW. But the bark had been removed already when you got the logs right? It looks like it in the pictures. Anything here in the mid Atlantic will rot if the bark is left on. At least the sapwood will rot and be chewed into swiss cheese by the bugs. The heartwood on oak or sweetgum, though, will stay good pretty much.
I milled one of the logs with the natural contour. Wasn't easy. Also don't know what I'll do with the pieces. But they look neat.
 

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I didn't remove the bark, those pics were taken just before milling. In the years sitting in the driveway much of it just fell off. I first took the log to someone who did custom sawing with a large bandsaw mill and with carbide blade he couldn't saw it, the $1,000 blade deflected badly due to (according to his assessment) knots and stress, and I didn't want to pay for breaking his blade. So I built a chainsaw sawmill and sawed it myself (I also had a stack of cedar and fir logs that came from the same development site to do) and it sawed it easily. I don't know why mine behaved so differently, but bugs and bacteria I expect might be different on opposite sides of the continent. Beech is an ornamental here, not indigenous.
 
I dunno, mine didn't split; no treatment other than I put some old paint on the ends when I first got it. I got a beech log given to me if I picked it up, let it lie in my driveway for 3 years and when I freshened up the ends it looked like the first two photos.

When I milled it up it looked like the second two. The table I made out of two slabs is the last one. I guess everyone's mileage varies.

Is there a possibility the tree was at an angle and stressed?


Beautiful! Did you devise that mill? I really like the idea of a carriage-mill over the Alaskan.
 
Yes, copied with modifications from a plan bought from Procut in Prince George. The total cost was about $1,000 plus saw; one of those projects where one stands back when completed and is stunned that it cost that little. $500 for the trailer frame with registration, plus another $500 for materials, with some allowance for a fair bit being scraps from other projects.
 
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